amberh1884

Hey Guys! I finally got settled into our new place after the wedding and I was able to post these pics as well!  I wanted to show anyone who is using Juan Navarro or his team how great they are!  We actually had Alex and Tony and we were very impressed with how wonderful they came out   I was reading a couple of pages back and saw some people wondering about using dinner at one of the restaurants as their reception.  We did the same thing and it was great, except for we did not care for the Italian restaurant.  We had our ceremony at the gazebo and it was beautiful!  We were on a budget so we opted not to do the cocktail hour, and honestly I feel like we made the right decision.  We were still taking pictures after everyone in the ceremony and other guests had finished their pictures with us, so they all went up to the lobby and mingled and had drinks from the bar and there was plenty of seating and a nice ambiance!  After dinner we still had too much time until the nightclub opened, and even though it was not in my plan everyone went to the Rock of Ages show until it opened.  It was nice!  I did change out of my wedding dress and into a short cocktail dress to dance because my dress was going to get so dirty!  It already had dirt on the bottom of it from the sand on the beach.  Trust me, you don't want to dance on your dress unless you don't care about that.  All in all, the wedding turned out wonderful.  There were just a few small things that did not go as planned, but I guess that is what you need to expect on a destination wedding.

Ok well I have tried adding some pictures by url and my computer and it is not working .  I will keep trying to put some on here

Hey all! I got back from Secrets a couple of days ago, but now we are moving tomorrow so I won't be able to post my full review until we get settled in. But, everything was awesome! You guys are going to love the resort. All of our friends that stayed other places were so envious because theirs just did not compare. It is surreal at first how awesome it is, hahaha. Once you get there, you will see all of your worrying and stress is put to rest because everything will get taken care of. And for you guys that are worrying about using the resort photographer (Juan Navarro and his team), You do not need to worry!! We had Alex and Tony and our pictures were absolutely spectacular! I will post a few down below so you can see.

Hey everyone! We leave tonight at 1:45 a.m. to go to the airport !! I'm so excited I can't wait to get back and post my review and pictures. Thank you so much to all of you that answered my questions. It was such a great help

Thanks Lola!  I am getting so excited.  I can't believe we are leaving in 2 weeks.  I got my chair sashes, fans, and bubbles in yesterday.  I was very happy to see that the chair sashes are going to be very compact and fit in one of my suitcases without taking up much room, because I was worried about it.  For the brides that have already gotten married, did any of you go to the disco at SMB?  I was just wondering what it was like because that is where we were planning on going after dinner.  Thanks! Amber

Hey Nicc80! I just wanted to tell you good luck before you leave!  I am having my reception at the Italian restaurant so I hope it is good too!  I have heard mixed reviews on here and tripadvisor so I hope I like it!  How long are you staying?  We are getting there the 17th so if you are still there maybe I will see you

Hi Ladies!  I have a quick question for the brides that have already gotten married at SMB.  I am bringing my chair sashes and fans with me to the resort.  Did any of you do this as well?  And, did you just have someone in your wedding party put the sashes on the chairs so you didn't have to pay a set-up charge?  Also, if anyone has had a cocktail hour with appetizers can you let me know if it was worth it?  We can not decide if we really want to have one or not.  Thanks ladies!!  Amber

Hi Kristinalilly! I notice that the resort was sold out of rooms for our dates about 3 1/2 months before our trip. But, I don't know if there is like a big convention or something on our dates because the only time there are no rooms are literally 2 days before and 2 days after! Other than that the entire month still has rooms. I think it was just bad luck

Msop04- My Fiance's mom and her sister are staying at the Catalonia Priveleged because it is the closest resort to Secrets Maroma and she wanted to be able to walk there when she needs to because she is afraid to take a taxi, lol.  I honestly don't know where everyone else is staying.  I know that is weird, but all the people that didn't book at Secrets ended up being my fiance's friends and I have no clue.  I also have no clue exactly how many of them are coming.  I am getting a little frustrated.  I feel like the wedding is turning into a free for all.  It definitely is not what I imagined, I thought every person was going to stay at Secrets and we were all going to get to hang out the whole time.  But, I guess it was not meant to be.  On the other hand though, that will definitely mean that we will have the last of the trip to ourselves as our honeymoon and I was worried about that at the beginning too!  If I were you, I would pin down the date first.  Put out feelers to your close family and friends about your tentative date and see that they all would be able to do it mostly.  That is what I did.  Once, you get the date set then you can book it on expedia no problem.  I found expedia to be the cheapest too!  Only thing is, you need to make sure that if you are doing the "complementary ceremony" where you get it for free for having so many nights in a preferred club swimout our having 5 rooms with double occupancy that you book through a site that actually says that it honors the "free wedding" on the booking page.  Expedia's did not so we had to book through Delta Vacations then Delta price matched the expedia price.  It was kinda complicated, lol.  But, if you are not doing the complentary one you don't have to worry about all that mess!

Ckrn- Your wedding was absolutley beautiful and so were you!! Congratulations

msop04- I have the same situation as you.  A lot of our guests waited too long and the rooms at Secrets sold out so they are all staying at other resorts.  I asked Cecilia about if they stayed at another Secrets if they would be allowed to come to Secrets Maroma for the wedding or other events at night since they have that "dine around program" where you can eat dinner at another secrets for free.  And she just said flat out no they have to pay the day pass every time they come to Secrets Maroma.  I even double checked with the information email at Secrets and they waited a month before they even got back to me and told me to ask my wedding coordinator.  Unfortunately, it looks like there is no way around it.  So, since there was no benefit for them to stay at another Secrets, the guests booked elsewhere.  Good luck with your planning!

CriCri-wow! Your set up was beautiful We are actually split up into two tables next to each other for the dinner. I wanted to be inside because since it is in July, I worried we would all be pretty hot after the ceremony and cocktail hour! BeachBride-Congrats! I am excited to see your review

CriCri-Well that is just my luck! Cecilia told me that it was one of the most popular.  I don't know what to do.... LOL, I am about to not even care and just take my chances.  Too much stuff is trying to go wrong.  Hahaha, I have to remember DW are supposed to be care free!

NewLoves-  I am glad you had good luck with your first dress, hopefully the second one is good too.  Maybe, it was just zarabridal.com that was terrible.  And no, we are not having a reception because I did not want to pay to eat the food that is supposed to be free. I just could not do it! So, we are having just the immediate family and their spouses sit at the same table with us since we could not have more than 20 without paying.  But, the other guests can come to the same restaurant and before that we are having a cocktail hour. Then, after dinner all meeting up at the disco after to dance!  I think it will be fine.  We have a pretty thin budget because my fiance is in the Air Force and we got PCS'd to Iowa right after the wedding!  So, now we have to move and I won't have a job anymore at first and we have to buy a house.  It is pretty crazy!

Hi NewLoves!  I have booked Juan through Cecilia about 5 months ago.  He responded to my initial question and then after that I sent him like 3 more emails and  requested that he himself be our photographer and he never responded to any of my questions except that initial email.  And that surprised me, but I dunno somebody from his team will be doing our pictures since we booked them.

I agree with everyone about having a million things to and getting side tracked!  And I have been having a lot of snafus!  I ordered my bridesmaids dresses from zarabridal and it was the biggest mistake of my life.  The first dress came and the skirt was literally a tutu!  It was nothing like the picture.  So, I emailed them to cancel the second dress because the girl had just ordered two days before and I had to email back 3 times to get confirmation that it was cancelled and she would be refunded her money.  They finally said yes we will cancel it and refund all but $30 because we have already cut the fabric and we can not use it again. So, I said ok if that is the best you can do.  Well, they shipped her dress anyway and never refunded her money! And, they refuse to respond to me now.  So we are less than 2 months away from the wedding and now I have to buy new dresses for them.  Whatever you do, do not buy from those sites that make the dresses themselves.  They are HORRIBLE quality and you have absolutely no recourse once you order. I just thought I should warn some people, lol.

CriCri- How did you like the italian restaurant, Portafina?  We are having dinner there after the ceremony.

CriCri! Are you going to write a review of your experience?  I would LOVE to see it and pictures of your big day!!

Hi all!  I wanted to tell everyone that has a wedding coming up good luck!  I feel bad that I missed telling ckrn before she left!  I didn't realize so many were at once.  CriCri- I hope your wedding was amazing!  I can't wait tell you give all of us your review   BeachBride-  I don't know if you have left yet, but GOOD LUCK!!  I am sure all of your planning paid off

Congrats CriCri!! I hope you have an amazing trip and I can't wait to hear about it when you get back

Hey Newloves!  Well, we recently ran into this problem.  Everyone said yeah sure we are coming, and we gave them the website with an estimate of the prices for a 3, 5, and 7 day trip from 3 different states because our guests are coming from New York, Oklahoma, and California.  I thought I had given everyone a really good idea of how much it was going to be.  And they all said yes that they were coming after seeing it.  We worked with a travel agent to get the best possible deal for everyone and all they had to do was put $150 deposit down to save their room.  Well guess what happened?  Pretty much everyone but our family dragged their feet and lo and behold all of the rooms at Secrets got booked up for our wedding with the exception of the honeymoon suites and the preferred club swimouts.  So then they were like "woah that place is too expensive".  So, now over half of our guests have to stay at another resort .  And, I am super sad because that changes the whole trip.  We will only get to see them the day of the wedding and if they come on an excursion with us!  But, what's done is done.  I can't control what other people do, even if I try.  So, if your guests don't commit to staying there now then there is a good chance that they will wait too long and the prices will go  up even more.

CriCri:  My ceremony is symbolic (the paper work and fees to do it legal in Mexico are outrageous) .  But, I am also doing the sand ceremony.  I just want to make sure we have enough time after the ceremony but before the cocktail hour, which starts exactly 1 hour after the start of the ceremony,  to take pictures.  So, basically I want to have at least 30 minutes for pictures since I only get Juan or one of his team members for 1 hour.  Lol, I am a little nervous that this will all be extremely rushed.  But, we had to do it this way so we could get a reservation in one of the restaurants so we didn't have to pay for a reception.  I just did not want to do that since we already eat for free and now most of our guests have to pay $100 to even get in.  But, that is just me.

And I don't remember the name of the person that suggested the fans, but that is an excellent idea! Thank you

Bpokatie you are a lifesaver!  Thank you so much   That is a lot more than I thought!  But, that makes me excited because luckily we have too many that we like. 

Is anyone else nervous that it is going to be extremely hot outside during your ceremony?  Mine is in July and I am starting to think we might all sweat to death.  My ceremony was at 6:00 so I thought it would be fine, but I have had to move mine up to 4:30 because we have to fit in our cocktail hour before our dinner reservation at 6:30.  And does anyone know how long the actual ceremony is?  Thanks guys!!

Hey Guys, does anyone know how many songs you need to have picked out from beginning to end of the ceremony?  I tried to ask Cecilia earlier this week but I guess she is busy.  I have no clue how many I need for before the bridesmaids walk in and when everyone is sitting down and all of that.  Thanks!

LBurton5:  Thanks! Good catch   I will have to show it to his mom and see if she can afford that one because it is still a lot higher than the regular rooms but it is definitely better! And if nothing else at least the other guests should be able to stay in the preferred club ones.

I finally found what I had saw about dining at other Secrets resorts if you stay at any of their resorts.  I knew I wasn't crazy, lol.  Here is the link: http://www.secretsresorts.com/dine-around.html

So, I guess that if people have to stay at another Secrets because only the expensive rooms are available, at least they can come have dinner with us some nights!

Sorry that last one was supposed to reply to CriCri!

Thanks for looking for me too   Yea, the day before and the day of all the rooms are sold out except the honeymoon suites.

Hey beachbride!  Thanks for looking for me.  I just checked there and they do have rooms but the only ones available there are the Honeymoon suites too.  It is too expensive for her and her sister to stay in a honeymoon suite.  And I am pretty sure none of our other guests will want to stay in one either   It really changes the whole trip for us because now instead of having all of our family and friends at the same resort where we can hang out and eat together, everyone will have to pay money anytime they want to come to the resort.   I guess we will just have to make sure everyone goes on the excursions with us so we can see them on other days besides the wedding.  But, it also looked like they had regular rooms available again on Sunday the 22nd so maybe some of the other guests can switch to Secrets after the wedding and near the end of their trip. LOL, it sounds like a hassle but it is better than nothing I guess!  And I had asked Cecilia about people staying at other Secrets and if they had to pay the the day pass too and she told me the same thing. But,  I thought maybe she meant to attend the wedding and I wanted to know if they could just come and eat and stuff for the day if  they wanted too.  I emailed the information email at both Secrets Maroma and Secrets Capri and no one had gotten back to me about it.  The only reason I asked was because when I was first researching the resort I had saw on their website where it said you could go to any Secrets and dine if you booked at a Secrets resort.  Also, a man I work with actually went to Secrets Maroma  last year and he told me that his wife and him did it.  But, I guess it could have been just a promotion because now I don't see it anywhere on their website.

Chelle86:  I have noticed it is taking her a little bit longer to respond to my emails in the past week or so too, but it is usually just 1 or 2 days.  Maybe she has a lot of weddings there right now.

Thanks everyone for the responses!  We booked through Delta Vacations and I looked myself and there are actually NO rooms through them left, and just the Honeymoon Suites are left on Expedia and actually through the Secrets website are too.  It really surprised me.  Maybe a big convention is there or something on my date.  But, yes I would love it if you could find a regular room available!  It would be for July 18-July 22 and she and her sister would be checking out on the morning of the 23rd.  So 5 nights for 2 people.  I tried to ask the information email at Secrets if we booked her and all the other guests that had not booked at Secrets Maroma at another Secrets like Capri or Silversands if they would still have to pay day passes?  But, no one ever responded  

Nicc80:  Unfortunately, she had her sister with her too and it would just be too crowded for anyone else to bunk with them.